Symptoms

When you use the Performance Monitor tool, some counters may be missing or do not contain counter data. The performance counter libraries may become corrupted and need to be rebuilt. You may see the following errors in the application log:

Cause

This behavior may occur if certain extensible counters corrupt the registry, or if Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)-based programs modify the registry.

Resolution

Ensure that the counters are not disabled in the registry

The counters may be disabled via registry settings. Please check the following registry locations to ensure that the counters have not been disabled.

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\%servicename%\Performance

%servicename% represents any service with a performance counter. For example: PerfDisk, PerfOS, etc.

There may be registry keys for "DisablePerformanceCounters" in any of these locations. As per the following TechNet article, this value should be set to 0. If the value is anything other than 0 the counter may be disabled.

Create a new Data Collector Set (do not use an existing Data Collector Set).

Sometimes, running lodctr /R may not recover all counters. If you notice this happening, verify the file c:\windows\system32\PerfStringBackup.INI contains the proper information. You may be able to copy this file from an identical machine in order to restore the counters. There may be slight differences in this file from machine to machine, but if you notice a drastic difference in size, it may be missing information. Always create a backup copy before replacing, and there is no guarantee that copying this file from another machine will restore all counters. If possible, compare the file to backups of the machine to see if the file size has decreased at some point in time.

For a number of counters, the location of the “ini” files to install perf counters is under “windows\winsxs”, e.g. those for IIS:

You will need to use the counter install ini files in the following directory "c:\Windows\winsxs".

It is possible that multiple folders exist for counters that you need to repair. In those cases, you might need to use trial and error to find the correct ini files. E.g:

Dir C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-iis-metabase*

In this example, try installing the infoctrs.ini from each folder using:

Lodtr infoctrs.ini

When it is successful, you will see the following entry in the application log:

Log Name: Application Source: Microsoft-Windows-LoadPerf Event ID: 1000 Level: Information Description: Performance counters for the inetinfo (inetinfo) service were loaded successfully. The Record Data in the data section contains the new index values assigned to this service.

More Information

Please note, there is a hotfix for known issues with PerfDisk.dll on Windows Server 2008 and Vista systems. This hotfix has been rolled into SP2 for these operating systems. If you are at SP1 or below, please apply the following hotfix:

Note This is a "FAST PUBLISH" article created directly from within the Microsoft support organization. The information contained herein is provided as-is in response to emerging issues. As a result of the speed in making it available, the materials may include typographical errors and may be revised at any time without notice. See Terms of Use for other considerations.